Ash Petals: Draconian
by Akalish
Summary: [AU] Rulers hold a great responsibility for others and should have a strong sense of compassion and ambition, the combination of which brings them closer to the population they protect and wish to see prosper; but the capability to decipher right from wrong is a hard lesson learned. Azula could scarcely believe the amount of responsibility and which ambitions would bring her down.


**_A/N_** _: This is just a small teaser for my upcoming fan fiction, **Ash Petals** , which is an AU from Sozin's Comet Part III — Into the Inferno, in which Ozai rules as Phoenix King, Azula as Fire Lord, and Avatar Aang is dead while Zuko is imprisoned for his treachery against the Fire Nation, and tortured within an inch of his life. So yeah, pretty dark themes up ahead, you have been warned._

 _The overall outline is actually completed, more or less. I know what I want to happen throughout the story and to the very end. I just need to write it down, and I already have some of the important scenes written down through notes mapped out across this trilogy (because, yes, that's what it will become). With school being a plague, though, I am uncertain for when I will have this finished._

 _That's all._

 _Rememer, teaser! The complete work of fiction will have to wait until I've finished the first book completely before I post anything._

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 **Warnings** : Torture, Implied Character Deaths, Minor Character Deaths, Graphic Deption of Violence, Rape/non-con, Incest, Psychological/Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, Sexual Assault, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Near Death Experiences, Disabled Characters, Mental Instability, Insanity, Hysteria, Hallucinations, Manipulation, Emotional Manipulation, Stockholm Syndrome.

 **Disclaimer** : Avatar: The Last Airbender belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. I claim no rights of owning anything but the plot and the original characters made to support this story.

This story was inspired by the fan fictions _So We'd Both Be Free_ by electric gurrl, and _Move the Mountains that Aren't There_ by attackfishscales.

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 **ASH PETALS**

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Book I

Draconian

 **惡**

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 _"War is peace._  
 _Freedom is slavery._  
 _Ignorance is strength."_  
— **George Orwell (1984)**

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Teaser

 **At the End of the World**

~.~

Even now, facing her father in a match dominated by the lust for power, she can feel the cold hatred flow through her veins — like ice spiked into spears, stabbing her very soul with such force that the cold is burning — as it had done all those years ago when realisation hit and still does every time she looks at him. If only she had known sooner, maybe things wouldn't have come down to this: father vs. daughter in their last battle, lost hopes flickering back to life in what they don't even dare to consider will be the end of loss and agony. The calm before the storm as the world awaits its destiny.

It took her years to come down to this, standing up and believing in herself, thinking for the better for herself and for the benefits for her people, despite deserving not an iota of their loyalty. She knows she was never meant to rule. True rulers are born leaders. And leaders, in turn, hold a great responsibility for others and a strong sense of compassion and selflessness that is meant to bring you closer to the population you protect and wish to see grow; both in strength and in morality. The explicit capability to decipher right from wrong even in the gravest of situations with such wisdom it is considered much beyond your years of living. It is all something resided within the heart, connecting with your mind and body, your very soul devoted to embrace, and of which rightfully divines your power and your right to rule.

Azula never possessed such traits.

But her brother always had. Zuko had everything, everything she had ever wanted, and additional she could never imagine to achieve. He had so much to contribute to the world, so much to give. Has so much more to show the world, has so much that can change it for the better, has what it takes to right their fallen country, she reprimands herself. Because he was always the better between the two of them — still is despite his continuative denial — no matter what he thought and no matter how much she thought it differently from an alternative point of view earlier on in time; he was always the preferred one for reasons unknown, when it came to the popular, reasonable opinion — the true heir. Even if consequences and sins has finally caught with him, because there is nothing she can do to reverse time and fix this. It doesn't matter, not any longer.

He is not here and has no capabilities to do what she is about to do; what she does out of necessity, what she does to protect and save what little there is left of a world controlled by draconian laws and laid in ash. What she does for him. Perhaps he will never regain what he lost — what was stolen from him. But she will make sure that he will regain everything the moment all of this is at its end. He will become as great as he once was at a point where he could even beat her, his prodigious little sister, just as he nearly did that day on their Final Agni Kai, when he turned a new leaf and became his own person. He will return to that place, she has sworn it already, and she will keep her promise, if only because it is all she has left.

But until then, balance, and the heavy burden it carries, rests on her shoulders, and she will do everything it takes to make sure the world will never again be brought into an era of chaos and terror. If only to see him smile once more.

There is trepidation in the air, a sense of dread and tension wafting through her nostrils, but it does not emit from her. Never has and never will, despite the course of her personal history. And yet, between the two of them, between the perfectly imperfect girl and the monster lurked for too deep in darkness, she is the first to break, like porcelain on stained silver.

She charges without hesitation, her piercing amber eyes blazing with a thirst for blood, but her face set into cold precision without an inch of self-doubt. And what happens afterwards is a battle filled with torture and terror with fire raining from the sky, cascading their fighting forms in the middle of dawn.

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 ** _A/N_** _: Keep in mind that this is a very dysfunctional fan fiction with dysfunctional pairings and very dysfunctional, dark themes as I cannot see another way for a redemption to happen when it comes in the regards to Azula. Because, yes, this is an Azula Redemption story, a redemption she first seizes at a point where it can be considered too late._

 _As pointed out earlier, this will end in Zucest, and I plan on taking a realistic turn for this pairing, hence the reason for the many warnings up ahead, as it will be nowhere near fluffy regarding this story. In fact, the only point in time where the angst will be minimal at best, and where the two of them will show some genuine affection for each other, when light will actually shines through, if you may, is in Book III: Phoenix Fire. Until then, it's dark in more than one way, and not just torture on one person; it will be both direct and indirect, and will affect more than just that of Azula and Zuko. I should probably also mention that the relationship between them is not one blossomed from love either, more like a growing depence of each other — sort of like the Zutara relationship in The Black Games_ _— with the primary focus on keeping their sanities through the first round of wildfire, even though one party loses theirs along the way as the other recovers. Oh, they end up loving each other, in their own dismal way, but it's slow process and very unlike the reast of the Zucest fan fictions that I've read._

 _Last, I want people to know that this trilogy will involve graphic descriptions of violence, physical, psychological and sexual, death and machinations of the highest order. This story has an actual deeper plot than what I have shown through this teaser, a plot of which I plan on exploring to the best of my abilities throughout these three books. I want to honour the amazing work of_ Embers _by Vathara for inspiration due to her incredible work on world building, and it is partly because of her that I have managed to come up with this sub-plot... of sort. (If you have not yet read it, you are missing out an unexplored part of A:TLA, big time.)_

 _Which, yes, means that this story is going to be much more complicated and longer than I first anticipated. No surprise there._

 _~Akalish_


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